Eastern Reel Life Feb 2017

'Fat rainbows' reward Rotoiti anglers

Lake Rotoiti has been one of the top performers so far this summer, serving up some “solid” catches.

Cooler than normal conditions have affected summer fishing on Lake Rotorua, by keeping the lake’s surface temperatures almost two degrees lower than this time last year.

Right: Throwing cicada patterns in the Eastern high country.

Fish are still being caught and the Rotorua trout are in good condition, but anglers have been a little disappointed that the action hasn’t matched up to last year’s bumper fishing.

Interestingly, the thermocline on Tarawera and Rotoiti is actually deeper than last month so anglers that are able target 20 to 25 metres should find hungry trout!

Lake Rotoiti continues to produce solid catches of big, fat rainbows and experienced fishers are reporting it’s one of the best year’s for some time.

The dry and windy spell of weather prior to mid February’s rain has seen an abundance of cicada hatching, providing some super fishing around the district.

Trout are focusing on this easy food source and it’s not difficult to get them to the surface with a cicada pattern.

Lake Waikaremoana is fishing well. The anglers on one particular boat interviewed in February had landed eight fish for a half-day effort and said it was the best fishing they’d ever had at the lake.

The shoreline stalking, for which Waikaremoana is renown, has also been productive early in the morning and later in the evening, and the brown trout are cruising and on the look-out for cicada.

Left: Magnificent backdrop, Lake Waikaremoana.

Eastern news tippets

Lake Okataina ramp has been difficult to use due to low water levels. But Rotorua Lakes Council have carried out repairs to remedy the problem.The deeper Rotorua lakes thermocline sits at 20-25m.Lake Rotorua’s surface water temperature is about 20C– almost two degrees cooler than this time last year.We have just completed our summer fish releases to Lakes Rotoiti (N17 tags) and Tarawera (X17 tags). Five hundred fish in each tag group plus 500 Ad marked fish in Tarawera.

Fish & Game staff drift-dived the Motu River in February to assess trout populations. We will provide details of our findings once we’ve analysed the data.